Fade Away
by ElementLegend
Summary: Because even when two people are friends, betrayal can set up a Bad Ending. [Twelve Shots Of Summer] Prompt: Betrayal/Alternate Prompt: The Broken Under The Bridges


**_This, along with many of my TSOS stories, is way late, especially since I finished it a while ago. This is actually closer to how I wrote KariyaxRhyme when I first started liking the paring. (Not that those stories will ever be posted on the internet...do you realize how many nightmare torture scenes I wrote?! Seriously, that pretty much described at least a third of my 100 themes challenge, and about a chapter of -14, which was an AU story where Rhyme and Beat were pretty much forced to be Reapers.) In any case, I hope you enjoy this! - Element_**

* * *

There were two facts that Rhyme was sure of. One was that Beat had died one week earlier. The other was that there had been a Reaper's game that week.

She sat by the Miyashita Park Underpass, staring silently at the ground.

* * *

Kariya really only had one question on his mind that day.

_How am I going to tell Rhyme that I killed her brother?_

Kariya had been friends with Rhyme for a little over a year now. They had been through thick and thin together, from Beat not accepting them being friends, to dealing with horrible nightmares together, to facing Joshua, and every trivial detail in between. She was the one person besides Uzuki he knew that genuinely liked him and accepted him for who he was.

And he had messed it all up.

He was trying to think of how she'd react to him telling her. Level-headed, but bitter that he had killed her brother, upset and teary, not willing to acknowledge it, or maybe silent, not wanting to talk to him?

Not that he could predict how she'd react, but it didn't mean he couldn't try.

He noticed her when he was walking down Miyashita Park Underpass. She was sitting down where Beat and Rhyme had died the first time. Whatever confidence Kariya had left for telling Rhyme about her brother had disappeared, like noise when it was erased. Not only that, she looked downright depressed. Not in the sniffly, sobby way girls usually show they're depressed, but a quiet, broken-on-the-inside way.

_You still have to tell her, Kariya, you still need to tell Rhyme_, the Reaper thought to himself, refusing to be a coward. He slowly walked up to his young friend.

"Hey, Miss Rhyme."

Rhyme looked up, her eyes tired and droopy. She managed a smile.

"Hello, Mister Kariya. How's Beat doing?"

_Crap...I forgot that the Biitos don't beat around the bush...Here's the moment of truth._

"Rhyme...I'm sorry, but...I...erased your brother."

"You _what_?" Rhyme asked, a faint growl in her voice.

"It was an accident, seriously! If I had known that it was Beat-"

"You wouldn't have killed him, is that what you were going to say, _Kariya_?" Rhyme asked, bitterness seeping through her voice.

"Yes, that's what I was going to say, Rhyme."

The two stood in the middle of the underpass, glaring at each other. Then, Rhyme stepped back.

"Why...Why...Why do you have to do this?! How dare you kill my brother!" Rhyme said, starting to visibly shake and cry.

"Rhyme-"

"I don't want excuses, Kariya! Best friends aren't supposed to hurt each other! They're not supposed to kill someone who's close to their friend, _especially_ if that someone is family! And most of all, best friends are not supposed to betray each other like this, Kariya!"

"Is that it?" Kariya asked, begging for her not to yell at him anymore. Rhyme's nose twitched, and her glare softened.

"We aren't friends anymore," she whispered, catching Kariya off guard. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but then she turned away from Kariya and started running.

Kariya could only watch as the silhouette of one of his only best friends faded away.

* * *

_How dare he?!_ Rhyme thought when she found out. She was so filled with anger that she couldn't hold it back. She wished that she could have been nicer, but at the same time, he deserved it.

Right?

It probably was an accident, and she wished that she could forgive him.

But killing her brother was something that was unforgivable, and that was that.


End file.
